Charge up for holiday travel with electric vehicle battery range calculator

No matter what kind of vehicle you drive, you’re going to want to keep an eye on the weather forecast before you travel anywhere, as rain, snow, wind, and fog can create potential hazards and delays on the road. However, electric vehicle (EV) drivers need to be a little extra careful when setting out, as weather conditions and temperature can affect battery performance perhaps more than many people realize.

According to Bill Kirk, co-founder and CEO of Weather Trends Int’l, also known as weathertrends360, the ideal temperature range for EV battery operation is between about 50°F to 88°F. Anything outside that range starts to affect another range – the battery’s.

“For EVs it's about a 1% decline in your range for every degree above 88°F and for every degree below 50°F,” Kirk says. “So if you go from 50°F to zero, your range is cut in half. If you normally get 300 miles on your range, you'll get 150.”

That’s a significant drop, and Kirk says he knows EV owners who have been stranded multiple times after failing to consider how the temperature would influence the distance they could drive before charging. That’s what led him to develop the EV Charge Calculator Widget now available on weathertrends360.

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The widget is a free, simple tool EV drivers can use to plan trips, particularly longer ones requiring at least one charging stop. Simply enter a location, hit the calculate button, and the widget will display both the current temperature for that location and the expected efficiency of an EV battery operating in that temperature. It also displays a 14-day forecast and long-range outlook.

Helping businesses work with the weather
Kirk, an Air Force veteran with a degree in meteorology from Rutgers University, began researching new methods of weather forecasting 35 years ago with the aim of increasing accuracy and detail beyond what was offered by conventional outlets. By analyzing data from more than a century of weather history and 24 oceanic climate cycles, Kirk developed a proprietary algorithm to forecast short- and long-term weather conditions with an 85% accuracy rate. In 2002, he commercialized the technology and, along with CRO Jack Grum, founded Weather Trends Int’l.

The company is more than simply a weather outlet – it’s something of a business advisor. Counting numerous Fortune 500 companies among its clients, Weather Trends offers guidance to manufacturers, retailers, and farmers on how weather conditions will affect their sales, as well as to individuals trying to plan budgets or investments. For example, a hotter summer results in increased bug spray sales, while a colder winter means more people buying coats and other warm clothing. Using what Kirk calls “The Power of 1 Degree,” the company has been able to counsel companies from microbreweries to automotive manufacturers on how to prepare inventory for upcoming seasons.

“[Traditional] auto batteries fail at the rate of about 7% per degree – it's huge,” Kirk says. “It's a huge impact on just your traditional car battery. So if it's 10°F colder in January, you can have a 70% increase in battery sales.”

As EV sales have risen, Kirk became more interested in targeting that market in addition to traditional automobiles, because advance planning is even more important for an EV driver. In addition to battery range, temperature fluctuations also affect charging time, which increases as air temperature gets colder. Then there are the other factors that may not even occur to a driver, such as how finicky EVs tend to be when it comes to road surfaces. An EV loves a smooth road but dramatically loses range when materials such as salt or cinders, put down to melt snow and ice, make the surface gritty.

All of these factors may be frustrating to an EV driver or even deter consumers from purchasing EVs, but when it comes down to it, these automobiles really just require a different type of planning than that required from someone driving an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle in inclement weather. If there’s a chance of getting slowed down or stranded by a snowstorm, you’d better have a full tank of gas. In addition, running a car’s air conditioner impacts fuel efficiency, so hot weather also merits adjustments from ICE drivers. (Worried about gas prices? Weather Trends can help you anticipate those fluctuations, too.)

A resource for fleets and individuals
Weather Trends’ intention is to help EV owners with the unique planning needs of their automobiles – not just individual drivers but commercial fleet managers as well. Any delivery fleet must plan ahead for severe weather conditions to ensure they’re still getting to their destinations on time, but as more fleets move toward electrification, their managers and drivers need to take a different approach involving route optimization, cost reduction, and other factors dependent on battery performance.

Planning for an EV journey will get easier as charging infrastructure improves and expands, and as battery technology continues to develop. These transitions take time, however, which is why Weather Trends hopes to offer a valuable resource now, while things are still a bit rocky (or gritty).

“We're in 11 verticals, with the retailers, the farmers, Wall Street, finance, diseases we predict – flu, asthma, allergy,” Kirk says. “But this EV thing is kind of new, right? I think everyone's just trying to get a sense of, what are the things we need to worry about? And I would certainly think weather should be one of them.”

He hopes to partner with EV manufacturers to incorporate the widget directly into their vehicles, but for now, anyone can access it online. With the holidays approaching, and with them the influx of travel, it’s worth a look – no one wants to be caught off guard by a dead battery during the busiest – and coldest – travel period of the year.